


collecting things

by ronsparkyspeirs



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 15:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3942091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronsparkyspeirs/pseuds/ronsparkyspeirs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>memories collect in his head and each time he does something different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	collecting things

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be an eternal of the spotless mind au but instead it morphed into this.

“What if I stayed this time?” she asks, the funeral home crumbling around her. Somewhere to his left the dog barks and there’s no walkers in sight; he’s dreaming.

He turns around and suddenly he’s in Aaron’s living room, there’s a fire burning in the chimney and Aaron is all gleaming white teeth and rosy cheeks, “I saw you with a pretty girl,” he teases, but that’s not right, Aaron never met Beth.

He wasn’t there.

She’s gone and he was never there.

Daryl thinks everyone might be forgetting her, they hardly mention her name anymore. No one will ever know Beth Greene and a huge lump in his throat forms when he thinks about that. He wishes he would have met her sooner, maybe before the whole world went to shit, he doesn’t think he would have spoken to her but she would have spoken to him. He wishes he could have been with her longer.

_He wishes he would have stayed._

“Wait!” he shouts, as she hobbles her way out of the house, backpack bouncing in tandem to her steps. She turns around as he pushes away from the hoard of walkers, they don’t seem to notice him much.

“Let’s pretend we said goodbye,” he says desperately, and Beth looks up at him with those big, doe, eyes and he almost falls to his knees.

“Daryl, you know I hate goodbyes,” she responds, grinning like she did in the candlelit kitchen.

“You left,” he tells her, “I came outside and you were gone.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, apologetically, and she turns around and limps her way out of the house and all he can do is stand and watch because this is how it happened. One second they were in the kitchen having dinner and the next she was gone.

The house crumbles and tears to pieces and he runs, and he runs, and he runs some more. By the time he reaches the crossroads he’s exhausted and he thinks he might have died because no dream has ever lasted this long. He drops to the ground and stares at his hands, blames his fingers for not being fast enough, he wishes he would have done a lot of things. When he raises his head he’s back in the woods and she’s stealing his knife to go look for booze.

_He wants to erase his memory of her._

There’s a breeze and he’s back in Alexandria, back in Aaron’s living room.

“I saw you talking to a pretty girl,” Aaron says, smiling at Daryl and nudging Eric’s shoulder, “who was she?”

He sees her walking beside him, it’s hot and it rained the night before so the air is heavy, feels like his clothes are drenched in sweat. Beth’s been quiet all morning, but when he turns to look at her she’s radiant, the sun spilling through the trees hits her hair and it makes her glow. Her skin still pale and pink despite the conditions they’ve been living in, she’s so beautiful but he doesn’t know that yet, doesn’t have the words to describe what he feels for her.

_Please, let me keep this memory._

“Wait!” he shouts, as she hobbles her way out of the house, backpack bouncing in tandem to her steps. She turns around and he pushes away from the hoard of walkers, they don’t seem to notice him much.

“Make up a goodbye at least,” he says desperately, and Beth looks up at him with those big, doe, eyes and this time he does fall to his knees. Anything to make her stay. She leans close to his face and he can feel her warm breath on his cheek, I wish we’d stayed.

“Goodbye, Daryl,” she whispers.

And then he’s in the basement, fighting off a mass of undead bodies. His arms are getting tired and his lungs burn with exertion but he knows that she’s waiting for him, he has to get to her before they get to her.

The air is crisp and the leaves are falling off of trees.

“It’s a serious piggyback,” he tells her, and this time he doesn’t walk toward the house. He keeps walking until they reach another one, when Beth asks why they didn’t stay in the funeral home he just tells her that something feels off about it.

He still carries her into the kitchen, places her on top of a counter instead, and she giggles the same way. I wish you’d stayed.

“What if we stayed here?”

“Really?” she asks, eyes widening in surprise, he nods and she tries to keep her smile secret, “it’d be nice to stay in one place for once.”

“Don’t leave,” he mumbles and Beth smiles at him, like he’s being silly, like he’s teasing her.

“I won’t.”

He wakes in his own bed. Blue morning light streaming in from the window, he scrubs at his face and sighs.

He wishes he’d done a lot of things.  


End file.
